In case I forgot to mention, every Thursday I’ll have a guest poster who will be blogging about beauty related things! Since some of them are unfamiliar with WordPress, I’m making a little post to show them how to use it. So feel free to ignore this.

#01 There is a bar at the top of my blog where it says “+ New”. Hover over that and click on “Post”.

#02 Now that the post page is up, the first thing you’ll want to do is enter a title into the box that says “Enter title here”. That will set the url for this post. Now you can begin typing up your post in the text box where the giant “#02″ is.

#03 On the right side of the post page you should see two widgets that say “Categories” and “Tags”. This is where you can enter the brands you’ve used, or select fotd, etc. If a brand you’re using isn’t already in the category list then just click “Add New Category” and add it. I generally enter the same tags so they match the categories.

#04 Adding media/photos! You want to click on the “Add Media” icon above the text box directly next to “Upload/Insert”. This will pop up an upload page.

#05 Now once the media box pops up you can either drag and drop photos, or click on the “Select Files” button and select your photos.

#06 Once your photos are uploaded you’ll see a list of your photos, you can now click on show and expand the info for your photo. Here you can change the title of your photo, add a description, etc. You can also choose to have the photo link to itself or something else. My post area on my blog is only 510 pixels wide, so if you’re choosing to post single images instead of a gallery, then you want to make sure you select the size that is 500 pixels wide. If your photos are small than that then it’ll let you choose full size automatically. You can also choose how to align your photo if you’re just posting single photos. If you’re using a gallery then simply edit the title or description and move on to the next photo. If you’re posting single photos, the title of the photo will show up in a black box under the photo. If you don’t want this to happen then just leave the title blank. Once you’re done editing information you can click “Save All Changes” at the very bottom of the pop up and it’ll take you a list of your photos.

#07 Alright so at the bottom of the page with the list of photos you’ll find the “Gallery Settings” area. If you plan on using the gallery then just select “Image File” next to “Link thumbnails to”. Leave the “Gallery columns” set to 3. Any more than that and they show up wonky. Then you can click on “Insert Gallery” and it’ll enter the code for the gallery into the blog post.

#08 Now if you’re writing your blog post early you can change the publish date to post on your Thursday. The Publish widget is to the right above the Category widget. You want to click on “Edit” next to “Publish Immediately”. This will expand the date/time selection dropdowns/calendar. Just select the date of your Thursday guest post date and then click “OK”. Then if you’re all done with your post you can click “Publish” and it will save your post and publish on the date/time you selected. And that’s pretty much it. Oh and if you want to see how your post looks before publishing it, you can hit the “Preview” button any time and it will pop open a new tab and let you see how it looks.

I updated my blog to 3.1 as soon as it was up. I have to say I really like it. It seems to have fixed the whatever it was that was cause my admin panel to be incredibly slow. It loads much faster now. I also really like the new bar at the top of my blog. It’s really handy for making a new post or searching or updating. All of my most used features are right there. No more needing to go to the admin area first.

How are you liking 3.1? If you haven’t upgraded yet, what’s holding you back? I’d also like to know what WordPress plugins you recommend and what are your favorites? I’m always browsing the plugins to see if anything catches my eye. I want a plugin that allows one to post a tweet in my comments and have it show a “screenshot” of that tweet from blackbird pie, like it does at the wordpress.com hosted blogs. It would be even better if WordPress could implement that feature into self hosted blogs. I know there is a plugin that allows you to post them to your blog posts, but I want it to work in my comments for say giveaways. I know over at wordpress.com it works in the comments.

Here is an example! When you paste a tweet url http://twitter.com/#!/toxidlotus/status/43228675503702016 on it’s own line in the comment field it posts a sort of screenshot thanks to blackbird pie. See:

You can see it live here. Yes I have a random wordpress.com blog. I can’t remember why. Haha Anyways if you tried to post that tweet here, all you’d see is a link instead of the blackbird pie screenshot. I want screenshot!

Yay. I can now upload stuff. I found a fix for the http error I was getting when I tried to upload images via WordPress. I also found a fix for the livejournal-crossposter which was giving me a fatal error. I is a happy camper now. All my plugins are working. *_*

P.S. It’s 2:21am and I am not tired. Wah. Why am I not tired? I had a busy day. I should be sleepy.